Richard Stallman's personal site.

Go to China or Else! (12 April 2003)

When doctors and international agencies are telling people not to go
to China, because of the danger of SARS, imagine finding out that
canceling the trip is so expensive it makes you hesitate. That's what
happened to me.

On March 30 I went to San Francisco on American Airlines. On April 3
I was supposed to travel on American Airlines to Beijing, China, via
Tokyo. Susbsequently I was going return to Tokyo for 8 days in Japan,
and then come home to Boston. It was all part of one long trip.

On April 2 the MIT travel doctor told me that people should not
anywhere in China unless it was essential. The Chinese government
said that SARS was not spreading outside Kuangdong, but the doctor
said that the Chinese government was lying. (The Chinese government
later admitted that it had been lying and that SARS was spreading in
Beijing.) That evening I called American Airlines to cancel the
flights between Tokyo and China. They did not say it would cost me
anything to change. At the same time I also postponed my departure to
April 11. However, I was sleepy, and later was not sure if I had
chosen April 11 or April 12. So on April 10 I called to double check
the date.

I was surprised to be told that I owed almost $700 for not taking the
two additional flights from Japan to China and back. American
Airlines said that the fare to Japan alone is higher than the fare to
Japan and China.

(I had called on March 31 to investigate the options, and on that
occasion they told me they would charge me over $800 for not going to
China. At that time I changed nothing. When on April 2/3 the agent
said nothing about charging me for the change, I assumed that they had
decided to behave more sensibly because WHO had just issued a travel
warning telling people not to go to China.)

In effect, I was charged extra for not going to China.

This is a danger to public health. I managed to get reimbursed for
the extra fee, but there are surely people who cannot get reimbursed
and would be hard-pressed to pay $700 extra. People who would go to
China, despite the risk, because they cannot afford not to go.

Someone might get sick, even infect others, because he couldn't afford
not to go.

The airline agents are very slippery. The first agent I spoke to on
April 10 kept saying "I was not privy to your conversation, but the
records clearly say this charge was recorded on April 3." Eventually
I said, "The records are what American Airlines said to itself. What
it said to me did not mention an additional charge." Then she
transferred me to a supervisor. The supervisor persistently denied
that American was charging people for not going to China. He kept
repeating that they were waiving the usual change fee--which, though
true, is beside the point. That was another extra charge that they
might have put on but did not. The fact is, in order not to go to
China, I had to pay $692 extra. They made me pay for not going to
China.

It is true that they could have made it even more. Air fares are
absurd and arbitrary; the airlines can make any trip cost anything
whatever for anyone in particular. American chose, through the fares
it set, to make people pay not to go to China.